Nurses' perceptions, barriers, and perceived need for a smartphone application guiding wound care

Abstract

Living and working in a rural community has many advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage is lack of resources and specialty in the medical field. One of these specialty fields lacking in countless rural areas is wound care. In the United States, approximately 6.5 million people develop chronic wounds annually. Economically, rural health care facilities are unable to send people for training and the limited number of people in rural areas with wounds would make it difficult for a wound expert to stay current in a rapidly changing field. However, inappropriate diagnosis and treatment of these wounds can be detrimental to the patient's life and be very expensive for the healthcare system. The development of a smartphone application guiding wound management using telehealth is in progress. This easy to use software application on a smartphone would enable rural facilities to have immediate, secure access to wound experts for help with diagnosis, treatment, management, appropriate dressings, and suggestion for the need to perform additional physiologic testing. This smartphone application will only be useful if healthcare staff are willing to use it. This research evaluated nurses' perceptions, barriers, and perceived need for this advancing technology. If these barriers and perceptions can be overcome, staff may be more willing to use this tool to provide the best quality wound care to their patients.